Posts Tagged lego

Blacktron was the first Lego Space theme to present a group of astronauts that were not the classic space agency. Blacktron were the villains of the Lego Space saga, made obvious by their choice of jet black spacesuits, vehicles and bases. Lego later produced Blacktron II, a series which had some really cool designs. The new Blacktron outfits seemed a little too colorful, though, and not very menacing.

Looking back at this first comic, it’s funny to think that it was just meant as a joke about ships with separable cockpits. All the winding storylines and most of the characters hadn’t been thought of yet. The only planning I had done was an outline for the story “Meteor Madness,” which was originally intended to be the debut adventure. I decided, however, that it was too complex for me to handle right out the gate. Instead, I started with some quicker comics that would introduce the characters.

Also, looking back, I see how I’ve improved. The photography is (mostly) better. It took me awhile, but I eventually figured out how to use anti-alias in my paint program to smooth out the lines in the speech balloons. In the first few comics I also had a problem with the placement and size of the panels, until someone told me that the layout tended to cause the reader to view the word balloons in the wrong order. I think at some point I’ll go back and correct these problems, especially if I do a print edition of the comics.

There were no real Lego Space sets after the “Life on Mars” theme, which depicted astronauts working side-by-side with friendly Martians, began and ended in 2001. Sure, there were Star Wars sets to hold us over, but they belonged to another sci-fi universe, not the one Lego had developed since the 1970s. Finally, in 2007, “Mission to Mars” was released. This theme seemed a real return to the Lego Space of old. And if you weren’t sure of that, the astronauts sported the same emblem of the space agency that dominated the first 12 years of Lego Space. There was something odd going on, though. The doe-eyed Martians of the previous Mars theme were replaced with glow-in-the-dark, hostile aliens that looked a bit like, well, the monsters from the movie Aliens. Even stranger, it appeared that our beloved space agency was encroaching on the aliens’ homeworld and plundering its crystals while the angry aliens fought back, only to have the astronauts capture them, encase them in pods, and send them flying all over the planet in pneumatic tubes! It seemed a little too Starship Troopers. However, it has been pointed out that since the aliens are so different from the Martians seen before, it’s possible that the space agency had permission to mine the crystals and were suddenly attacked by the non-Martian Aliens, forcing the astronauts to defend themselves with their mining equipment and any weapons they happened to have on hand. I much prefer the second story, myself.

And here we have it, the first appearance of Commander Schwartz! For some reason, it’s a little weird to me that he didn’t appear in the first comic, but whatever. I don’t believe I had his personality planned out, although it went on naturally from this, and he did star in the initial outline for the “Meteor Madness” story that was the first thing I ever wrote for this comic.

This page still amuses me, and was the basis of the firstSpace Audiobook. And I really like how the background crisply contrasted with the characters.

The introduction of aliens actually caused a problem for me when, IN THE VERY NEXT COMIC, I introduced a story about the UFO aliens, which are meant to be mankind’s first widely-known alien encounter. I later explained that Earth had met the native Martians, but had grown a bit bored of them and now considers real aliens to come from outside the solar system (which I think would happen). I am going to return to the idea of these other aliens terrorizing the Mars astronauts in a future story, but not until after the UFO story plays out.

After two silly comics, it was strange to post a page that played it straight. But if you’ve read my comic for awhile, you know I like to do that once in awhile. In fact, this is nothing compared to the extremely dark “Last Face You See” storyline. Still, I’m reminded of one guy who saw my first couple of comics and lamented the fact that this wouldn’t be an ultra-serious, hard sci-fi Lego Space comic like he had always wanted. Sorry, guy, that’s just not my kinda story. :-/

This was the beginning of the UFO storyline, which is core to the overall story even if it disappears for a bit now and then. I really like that shot of the alien android observing the base.

One more note – the base in this comic was originally meant to be the Space Agency HQ, which totally wouldn’t have been appropriate since it is an Exploriens base. Thankfully, I soon acquired the Inter-Galactic Command Base, a true blue Classic Space set, and the Android Base seen on this page just became Captain Amarillo’s hang-out. And yes, this was also Captain Amarillo’s debut, but more on him later.

I really hate that I took and used such blurry pictures for this comic. On the other hand, it introduced Commander Galanos and his friendship with Schwartz, as well as establishing Schwartz as a sarcastic bastard who likes to dream. The Black Knight motif will come up again…

This page began the trend of showing Schwartz and Galanos (but mainly Schwartz) doing just about anything but working. Their robots were meant to be featured more often, especially as rivals, but I haven’t used them as much as I’d like.

This has always been one of my favorite comics, and that’s probably why I flashback to it so often. Which is funny, because it’s a big set of flashbacks in itself. In retrospect, every adventure seen here seems to be based on Galanos and Schwartz’s love of TV. Captain Kirk and his crew once ran from a giant cat on Star Trek, and the skeleton scene is a tribute to Jason & The Argonauts. The dynamically lazy duo are big fans of Indy movies and the many Harrison Ford clones that star in them in the far future of the comic, as would be revealed following the short appearance of Indy here. And the Han Solo in Carbonite gag is a small continuity error, as Schwartz and Galanos darn well should know what that is! They even admit the mistake in a later comic. Finally, the flashback to the Academy days is important, as it shows the group of friends that are central in many ways to the comic: Weiss, Amarillo, Schwartz, Galanos and Red. By no coincidence, those are the colors in which Lego released its Classic Space astronauts, and I gave them all names to match. Oh, the last panel is supposed to be Schwartz throwing up in Galanos’ helmet, but that wasn’t clear to everyone, so I did a whole other comic to explain it afterwards. LOL

A reader once made a good point that it would have been better if the ship were in focus instead of Lt. Verwaand. Good point; live and learn.

Verwaand (which is Dutch for arrogant) is a character who hasn’t yet lived up to the potential I have in mind for him, mainly because he hasn’t shown up a lot. He did, however, show up to bemoan this fact in the Lego Space Advent Calendar.

This introduced the ongoing rivalry between Commander Valkyrie and Officer Freundlich, natural enemies true to the Space Police I (and II) sets that always had Blacktron imprisoned in the Space Police’s mobile cells. I really like the angle of the truck in the first panel.

From what I’m read, Blacktron actually was depicted as allies of the Lego astronauts in catalogs, but that all changed when Space Police hit the scene, and they needed someone to lock up!

The shot of Freundlich’s “expression” while locked in the cell and hearing of his chief’s gas problem was serendipitous. The Chief is a character I like but haven’t found a chance to bring back since this very comic!

Space Police 1 and 2 looked very different but were intended to be the same agency, I would think. Both themes were great.

While I haven’t seen it noted or discussed anywhere, 2008 is the 30th anniversary of Lego’s Space theme. I’ve decided to celebrate that (in my own twisted way) by introducing a recurring storyline that features the 918-1 Space Transport, a set introduced in 1978. It’s the only set I own from the first five years of Lego Space, but it’s a nice-looking ship. Lego would use its design as the basis for a couple of larger ships, including the legendary Galaxy Explorer.

UPDATE: While the first sets from the Lego Space theme were dated 1978, it seems they actually saw wide release in 1979, meaning everyone else celebrated the 30-year anniversary a year after me. Oh, well.